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Does Ohio State Want The Big Ten And SEC To Turn Into A Super League? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Saturday, July fourth, I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, Tom or the ball State game in sixty
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  Speaker 1: three days, the game against Michigan in one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: forty seven days. Our friends at jeff Ruby's Columbus are
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  Speaker 1: probably offering nationally acclaimed USDA Prime Stakes, seafood and sushi,
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  Speaker 1: that is simply unmatched. Just go to Jeffrey dot com
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  Speaker 1: slash Columbus to check out the menu and make a reservation. Today,
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  Speaker 1: on today's show, you're going to get to hear a
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  Speaker 1: little bit more from Ohio State Athletic Director Ross Bjorke
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  Speaker 1: our conversation with him a little bit over a week ago.
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  Speaker 1: At this point, he had a ton of interesting things
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  Speaker 1: to say. Today's show, we're just going to be focusing
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  Speaker 1: on sort of the future of college football a little bit,
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  Speaker 1: the Super League, the potential of a Big ten SEC breakaway,
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  Speaker 1: the TV deals or the TV deals with the different
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  Speaker 1: leagues going to get cooled. How would that impact Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State conference expansion? Is that something that could get outlawed
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  Speaker 1: by Congress? Is that something that the Big ten in
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  Speaker 1: SEC could try and jump the gun on a lot
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  Speaker 1: of really interesting answers on a lot of that kind
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  Speaker 1: of stuff. So let's do the negotiating the TV deals altogether.
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  Speaker 1: That is something where you know, pulling your media rights
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  Speaker 1: is the way it's been. It's been brought up in
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  Speaker 1: conversation over the last few months. And the Big Twelve,
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  Speaker 1: the acc oh, they are very much in favor of
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  Speaker 1: the SEC. The Big Ten, well maybe not so much.
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  Speaker 1: So what are Ross B York's thoughts and Ohio State's
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  Speaker 1: thoughts on the idea of all the conferences pulling their
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  Speaker 1: media rights and just going to the networks and having
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  Speaker 1: one negotiation as opposed to the different leagues doing it
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  Speaker 1: at different times.
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  Speaker 2: I think, what does that mean? You know, what's what's
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  Speaker 2: the purpose you know of that right? And we have
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  Speaker 2: current contracts. You know, Fox owns our TV rights till
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  Speaker 2: twenty thirty six, and so I believe, based on an
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  Speaker 2: amendment last week, there was language inserted that current contracts
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  Speaker 2: cannot be disrupted.
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  Speaker 3: So even if let's just say that would.
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  Speaker 2: Pass, how long is it going to take to have
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  Speaker 2: that even happen? And then if it's voluntary, truly voluntary,
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  Speaker 2: are we going to be forced into it through a
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  Speaker 2: lawsuit or something like that. All of that has to
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  Speaker 2: be structured in a way where, again, we have the
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  Speaker 2: most amount of flexibility to operate like we see fit,
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  Speaker 2: which is what we have now.
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  Speaker 1: So if that does go through, and again there's a
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  Speaker 1: long way before that would kick in. But would Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State potentially lose money in a scenario where those media
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  Speaker 1: rights would be pooled.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot of I would call it speculation on
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  Speaker 2: what value really is in the marketplace. I don't think
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  Speaker 2: anybody's been able to do a true analysis to say
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  Speaker 2: this is what the TV packages are really worth. Right,
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  Speaker 2: And if you talk to the TV executives, they will
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  Speaker 2: tell you there's not a lot of new money in
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  Speaker 2: the system, right, And so I think there's a lot
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  Speaker 2: of speculation out there about value.
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  Speaker 3: And what it means. Look, I know the viewership around
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  Speaker 3: Ohio State.
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  Speaker 2: I know our brand value, I know the data that
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  Speaker 2: I just gave you, right, I know what our value
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  Speaker 2: is worth. So to say would we lose money would
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  Speaker 2: we make more? I have no idea how that would work.
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  Speaker 2: I do know that we do have a TV window
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  Speaker 2: that opens up around the CBS and NBC window that
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  Speaker 2: expires in twenty thirty. Again it's part of Fox, So
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  Speaker 2: actually we'll have some really good data to say, what
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  Speaker 2: is the market going to yield when those contracts come
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  Speaker 2: up for renegotiation or go out to market.
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  Speaker 3: We'll have some data around that.
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  Speaker 2: And I do believe there's an upside, but I also
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  Speaker 2: know that the Big Ten is driving all that value,
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  Speaker 2: and if you bring others along with you, does it
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  Speaker 2: water it down. We don't know the answer to that
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  Speaker 2: because no one has really tested that. And this theory
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  Speaker 2: around pooling media rights has caught on, but nobody really
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  Speaker 2: has a true roadmap of how it would work, who
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  Speaker 2: would organize it, and then what's the best Those details
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  Speaker 2: have not been flushed out.
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  Speaker 1: One of the things that the bill going through Congress
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  Speaker 1: right now is seemingly trying to avoid is a super league.
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  Speaker 1: And the Big Ten and the SEC have both said
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  Speaker 1: they don't really want that, but you know, if legislation
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  Speaker 1: goes through that isn't what they want. Does Ohio State
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  Speaker 1: sort of go along with the legislation or does that
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  Speaker 1: maybe push some of those big teams into sort of
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  Speaker 1: walking away from the rest of college football and forming
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  Speaker 1: a super league.
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  Speaker 3: I think it depends on what does that mean? What
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  Speaker 3: does go along with what? Right?
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  Speaker 2: Is there other things again that we could live with.
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  Speaker 2: And let's just say we're talking about a federal bill.
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  Speaker 2: I'm assuming let's just say there are things in there
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  Speaker 2: that okay, if we get this, we're okay with this.
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  Speaker 2: Those things have to be presented at some point in time,
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  Speaker 2: and that that's kind of the next steps, you know,
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  Speaker 2: in the process. You know, a super league can go
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  Speaker 2: both ways, right if they could restrict us from expanding,
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  Speaker 2: but what if other leagues would fall apart for some reason,
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  Speaker 2: or what if some program emerges and they're ready to
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  Speaker 2: take a leap and move up, which has happened in
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  Speaker 2: the last you know, five to eight years, right, Well,
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  Speaker 2: those programs are now restricted from moving up. So this
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  Speaker 2: whole again, the construct of the language right now, can
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  Speaker 2: go both ways. So I do think that's one of
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  Speaker 2: the things that I think we'll see changed in the language.
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  Speaker 2: You know, what does a super league mean? Is there
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  Speaker 2: a definition of it? I haven't seen one? Is that
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  Speaker 2: eighteen teams? Is that you know? I think Commissioner Sankie
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  Speaker 2: said that they're a super league already and they don't
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  Speaker 2: want the SEC network to have Ohio State on it, right,
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  Speaker 2: that's their network. So that term got thrown out there
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  Speaker 2: when people were talking about all FBS teams, all of
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  Speaker 2: the power autonomy for conferences. But I haven't seen a
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  Speaker 2: definition of this is what a super league means and
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  Speaker 2: here's how it functions.
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  Speaker 3: Nobody's presented that.
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  Speaker 2: And I've seen proposal from every private equity firm, every
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  Speaker 2: third party, every consultant. I've seen it all, but nobody
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  Speaker 2: can really describe what it is.
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  Speaker 1: He kind of got asked to clarify, just sort of
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  Speaker 1: got asked sort of the same question again, just to
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  Speaker 1: sort of get a him on the record. Kude, Ohios
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  Speaker 1: date get backed into a corner where legislation that they
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  Speaker 1: don't like forces them into making some kind of a
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  Speaker 1: change with their.
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  Speaker 3: Alignment potentially again.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's where this is so fluid right now,
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  Speaker 2: and everything is part of the conversation, right and that's
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  Speaker 2: where we have to be really aligned with our Big
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  Speaker 2: ten colleagues. We have to be aligned with our institutional leadership.
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  Speaker 2: We will always have to do what's best for Ohio State.
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  Speaker 2: That's the mandate. That's our job. Every single day. We
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  Speaker 2: wake up every day thinking about that. What is best
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  Speaker 2: for Ohio State. But then how does that layer into partnership,
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  Speaker 2: how does that layer into the national land. Look, we
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  Speaker 2: need the Big Ten to be healthy, right we do.
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  Speaker 2: We need the Big Ten to be healthy. Knowing that
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  Speaker 2: we're the you know, we're the really at the forefront
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  Speaker 2: of that, but we need we need a viable conference
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  Speaker 2: that we can rely on. But if we're forced to
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  Speaker 2: do something else and you got to make decisions, then
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  Speaker 2: you have to make those decisions whatever that might be.
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  Speaker 1: Some of the proposals out there in front of in
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  Speaker 1: front of Congress, and some of the elements of that
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  Speaker 1: bill would suggest that leagues would not be allowed to
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  Speaker 1: add teams, or at least big leagues would not be
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  Speaker 1: allowed to add teams. If that bill in Congress passes
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  Speaker 1: ways that they can sort of make it so you
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  Speaker 1: can't change, you can't add members if you're over a
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  Speaker 1: certain size. So if you're worried about that and you're
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  Speaker 1: the Big Ten and you want to bring in teams,
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  Speaker 1: could the league just potentially get ahead of that, And
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  Speaker 1: just if the bill's not going to pass or go
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  Speaker 1: into effect until later this fall or even next winter,
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  Speaker 1: could the Big Ten just get ahead of that by
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  Speaker 1: adding those teams.
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  Speaker 3: Now, you know, I.
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  Speaker 2: Actually saw I saw some articles floating around last night
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  Speaker 2: that there's some outreach that people are doing. Other programs
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  Speaker 2: are saying, should we try to get ahead of this
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  Speaker 2: this bill? You know, I don't look if there's ever
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  Speaker 2: if there's ever expansion, it has to be meaningful.
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  Speaker 3: There's got to be a purpose.
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  Speaker 2: It's got to drive either a scheduling piece to it,
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  Speaker 2: and then it has to drive revenue.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 2: I think one of the things that will be a
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  Speaker 2: challenge coming up in the next i'd say one to
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  Speaker 2: five years, is the West Coast teams in the Big
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  Speaker 2: ten continuing to travel east and then our teams continuing
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  Speaker 2: to travel west. Is that is that viable and sustainable?
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  Speaker 2: Should we be more regional based in our scheduling. It
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  Speaker 2: doesn't mean we can still have the Big Ten, but
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  Speaker 2: maybe you have more regional scheduling within the Big Ten.
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  Speaker 2: So to me, it has to be real strategic from
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  Speaker 2: that standpoint.
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  Speaker 1: You're trying to make these decisions about the future of
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  Speaker 1: college football, and you're doing it with media rights deals
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  Speaker 1: that aren't going to be up for another ten years.
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  Speaker 1: The Fox deal not going to be up for ten years,
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  Speaker 1: the CBS and NBC deals with the big ten those
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  Speaker 1: are up in twenty thirty, so four more years. But
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  Speaker 1: how accurately can you even project what these numbers are
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  Speaker 1: that you're to be making these decisions based on when
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  Speaker 1: you're looking at twenty thirty six, How can you project
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  Speaker 1: those numbers accurately to be able to make any kind
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  Speaker 1: of decisions on that stuff?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, right now we have the biggest package right
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  Speaker 3: in college sports.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I think there's some really good data on
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  Speaker 2: what maybe the early window, that twenty thirty window can
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  Speaker 2: look like.
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  Speaker 3: That process has not started. Fox is our partner in that.
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  Speaker 2: So they'll be at the forefront of leading those conversations. Look,
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  Speaker 2: the land, I mean, the media changes every year. There's
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  Speaker 2: new technology, right and you know what we haven't really
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  Speaker 2: seen in a broad way is the Amazon Prime, the Netflix,
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  Speaker 2: the Apple. They've done it and you know, bits and chunks,
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  Speaker 2: but have they bought an entire league yet? Right, So
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  Speaker 2: those are the kind of things that in the next
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  Speaker 2: ten years, who knows what it'll like, Who knows how
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  Speaker 2: we're going to consume the content piece. There may be
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  Speaker 2: a there may be a chip in our in our
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  Speaker 2: ear that has a screen in front of us and
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  Speaker 2: we're walking around and we're watching the World Cup, or
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  Speaker 2: we're walking down the street like in a virtual like
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  Speaker 2: we have no idea, or we're flying in a you know,
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  Speaker 2: hella hella taxi watching the world like, we have no
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  Speaker 2: idea what technology is going to do. So but I
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  Speaker 2: think the point of that is it gives us opportunity,
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  Speaker 2: you know, to expand it. Just it's so early and
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  Speaker 2: so far away that things are going to change anymore.
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  Speaker 1: When you look at the future of college athletics, there
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  Speaker 1: is definitely not a one size fits all solution. You've
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  Speaker 1: got Ohio State, you got Texas, You've got Georgia. You've
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  Speaker 1: got these big, powerhouse national schools that are bringing in
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  Speaker 1: a ton of money that can sink a ton of
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  Speaker 1: money into different sports no problem. They can spend a
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  Speaker 1: bunch of money on football, they can spend a bunch
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  Speaker 1: of money in basketball. They can do whatever. They've got
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  Speaker 1: the money to do it. Then you got other schools,
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  Speaker 1: schools that are theoretically in power conferences, like Rutgers or Louisville.
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  Speaker 1: They're losing money hand over fist. I mean, Rutgers has
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  Speaker 1: maybe lost half a billion dollars billion with a b
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  Speaker 1: over the last ten years or so. So in a
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  Speaker 1: world where you can't just limit what players are earning,
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  Speaker 1: you can't put a salary cap in place right now,
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  Speaker 1: so those schools, it would seem like they can't really compete.
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  Speaker 1: So are we going to get to a point where
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  Speaker 1: only the elite to eight, ten fifteen schools can really
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  Speaker 1: spend as much as they need to on football, basketball,
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  Speaker 1: everything else and everyone else? Are they just going to
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  Speaker 1: get left behind? Is there a solution for those other schools?
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  Speaker 1: Is there a solution that can make Ohio State and
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  Speaker 1: Rutgers happy?
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  Speaker 2: You know, I think I don't know if I don't
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  Speaker 2: know if I can predict that right, because no one
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  Speaker 2: has that sort of crystal ball. I think this is
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  Speaker 2: the challenge in the entire enterprise. And I'll just take
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  Speaker 2: FBS right. And I was at Western Kentucky for two years,
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  Speaker 2: and it was very very important that we called ourselves
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  Speaker 2: a BCS program, right because the Sun Belt we were
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  Speaker 2: in the Sunbelt at that time, had access to go
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  Speaker 2: to the BCS, even though we knew deep down with
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  Speaker 2: a twenty one million dollar budget that that was going
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  Speaker 2: to be really hard, and it was the first year
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  Speaker 2: of FBS football for Western Kentucky, my first year as
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  Speaker 2: the athletic director. But it was very, very important that
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  Speaker 2: we said we're a BCS program. So the problem with
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  Speaker 2: our entire enterprise is it's all about attachment, it's about
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  Speaker 2: brand association. It's about being sort of you know, in
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  Speaker 2: the club if you will. We've got to be in
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  Speaker 2: the A four, we've got to be in the FBS,
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  Speaker 2: we've got to be a CFP team, We've got to
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  Speaker 2: be a BCS team.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 2: What's hard in our industry is here's our resources and
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  Speaker 2: here's where we should aspire to. That's that's the crux
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  Speaker 2: of the whole thing of what you just talked about
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  Speaker 2: is our resource allocation is this, but we want to
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  Speaker 2: belong to this and can we match that? And that's
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  Speaker 2: and that's leading to institutions. Then it comes down to
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  Speaker 2: is the institution prepared to say that athletics is a
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  Speaker 2: strategic enterprise of the institution. Therefore we will make a
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  Speaker 2: strategic investment in that enterprise.
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  Speaker 3: Just like they do.
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  Speaker 2: There's academic units that do not quote unquote make money,
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  Speaker 2: but the institution makes a strategic investment. So you're actually
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  Speaker 2: starting to see Virginia Tech is allocating you know, dollars
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  Speaker 2: from the institution. I think Arkansas announced an allocation. Our
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  Speaker 2: friends up north received an allocation from the institution, you
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  Speaker 2: know for for their budget. You're starting Rutgers, you mentioned them,
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  Speaker 2: But that that's really to kind of philosophically break down
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  Speaker 2: your questions, Steve, That's the challenge is here's our economics,
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  Speaker 2: here's what we aspire to. When those things don't match,
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  Speaker 2: somebody's got to fill that gap. So I don't know
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  Speaker 2: what the answer. The two things I know will kind
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  Speaker 2: of get us to a place is how do we
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  Speaker 2: develop cost certainty? I don't want to say cost containment,
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  Speaker 2: cost certainty, and if the numbers go up every year,
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  Speaker 2: at least you know what they are. But when you
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  Speaker 2: don't know where the market's going to go, you don't
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  Speaker 2: have certainty. Cost certainty and drive more revenue. That's the
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: chase certainty and drive revenue. That's what we all have
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: to move forward on.
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  Speaker 1: All Right, that will do it for today's show. If
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